Robinson Daily News

OPH to host Red Hill in another Saturday Homecoming matinee



Being competitive is one thing. Winning games is another.

Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville’s football team has been good with the former so far this season, but has yet to figure out how to do the latter.

Through four games, OPH (0-4) has been competitive in each one and scored in each game, but has yet to find the win column. Losses have come at the hands of Dupo (38-30), Tri-County (22-14), Carlyle (40-22) and Pinckneyville (26-8).

“We are ready to get back out there and go after another one,” OPH head coach Jacob Fuller said. “The kids know they have been leaving several missed opportunities on the field that have cost us the chance to win games.”

The next opportunity comes on Saturday, when OPH hosts a Red Hill team that has exceeded expectations so far this season. The Salukis enter the Homecoming contest in Oblong with a 3-1 record, as they have defeated Cerro Gordo (30-0), Melrose Park Walther Christian (45-13) and Newton (22-17), while losing to Shelbyville (50-6).

Fuller knows his team will have its hands full, but believes they will be up for the challenge.

“We will be facing another strong running offense and our defense has tightened up and improved against this style of offense, but we continue to shoot ourselves in the foot and can’t get off the field,” Fuller said. “They have a good set of outside linebackers that we need to get taken care of so we can get our outside running game back on track.”

Getting the offense back on track is maybe the most important thing for OPH, which has struggled the last couple of weeks, largely due to injuries on the offensive line.

“We struggled running the ball last week and that’s what we like to do,” Fuller said. “We were running out of linemen, so we had to try to go to the air more than we would like.”

Fuller also wants his team to play with more of a sense of urgency, as his team currently is on the brink of elimination in regard to postseason contention.

“We need to play inspired football and not go through the motions,” Fuller said. “We have talked about what we are up against and it’s a daunting task to win out. However, we are focusing on one game at a time and improving our overall performance each week and let the rest figure itself out.”

Keys to the Game

Offense: “We have to have discipline with running the play as called and sustaining our blocks,” Fuller said. “We are doing things well at times, but we are just not finishing and coming up with the scores that we need.”

Defense: “We need to get off the field when the opportunity is there,” Fuller said. “We’d love to get some three-and-outs and get our offense on the field more.”

Last meeting: Red Hill 48, Oblong-Palestine-Hutsonville 0. Playing in a constant rain throughout the game, OPH was never able to get anything going offensively, as they finished the game with negative-seven yards of offense. Meanwhile, the rain didn’t slow down the Salukis, as they scored two touchdowns in each of the first three quarters and tacked on another in the fourth to pull away for the win. Brandon Thacker was the leading rusher for OPH with four yards on two carries, while Nicki Roberts ran six times for two yards. Andrew Maxfield led Red Hill with 110 yards rushing and two touchdowns, while Ben Stimler ran for 107 yards and two touchdowns and Jacob Powden added 79 yards rushing with two touchdowns and he also returned a fumble for another score.

Series history: OPH is now 0-3 against Red Hill since the new co-op agreement was formed and has yet to score a point in those contests. In addition to the loss last season, OPH lost 22-0 in the spring 2021 season and lost 40-0 in 2019. Prior to the new co-op, both Oblong and Palestine-Hutsonville played Red Hill on a regular basis. Oblong went 16-19 in 35 all-time meetings, while Palestine-Hutsonville was just 2-22 in 24 contests with the Salukis.

Injury report: Fuller noted he has several offensive linemen banged up and at least two that will be out, possibly three.

Kickoff: 2 p.m. Saturday at Ron Welsh Field in Oblong.

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